Galerie Stephanie May 2-25, 2025

LOOK INTO A DAYDREAM

Thea Quiachon's Glimpse into the Dreamer's Reality

Figures and layers of paint give these otherwise blank canvases a picture, but only barely. The figures we do see are something yet nothing: unidentifiable people, vague landscapes and origami figures seemingly made out of wet tissue. The pictures tell a story, but it is neither here nor there.

In this exhibit, Quiachon tries to picture what it is that dreamers see in the mundane, but only the dream parts uninterrupted by either noise of dream and reality. Each painting is someone's day to day as viewed through the lenses of a tomorrow hoped for. Nebulous the figures are they take on a concrete identity as a whole, a picturesque view of somewhere that isn't in front of their eyes.

The exhibit is an anthology of people who tread two paths and every painting is a photograph of both.

A TOUCHING EXHIBIT YOU SHOULDN'T TOUCH

Ciane Xavier, Ganavee Lazaro, Jezzel Wee, Marco Rosario and Mikee Naval's Softly, Firmly

Ceramic is weird stuff, it starts out soft and pliable but after you fire it up it becomes stiff and brittle that attempting to do what you did a while ago will net you either nothing or a pile of shards.

This group exhibition shows ceramic as a medium of paradox, how a malleable thing can become hard set and how though hard set it still keeps its softness in its curves.

Xavier's heads are akin to portraits of a mind in the midst of an emotion, each face molded to the mind it contains.

Lazaro recreates the use of clay in devotion by making small objects that would look like they are used in some sort of ritual, may it be a tool or an object of worship. The softness in form evokes the rather primitive means primitive men made their idols.

Wee's trees take on a dynamic form against the static ceramic, mimicking the branches sawing in the wind. The sculptures are also incense cone holders so if used this way the smoke will create a finicky canopy that is jus subject to the winds.

Rosario's shapely fruits are dressed up (also in ceramic), the flower vases shaped nothing like the usual ones, as these ones are round, bulbous and seemingly unstable, the fruits (pun intended) of the artist's struggle to soften the ceramic through form.

Naval's objects are the most practical of the bunch, as they should; they represent practicality itself. The "Panali" series places eponymous tying material through each object as marks of resourcefulness.

Each piece is about ceramic itself, its versatility, its properties and its ubiquity, as these works tend to share the same appearance as kitsch.

FAITH-ALL-YOU-CAN

Farley del Rosario's Divine Code Switch

Syncretism on asteroids as religious imagery is mixed into a blend that just won't coagulate. If all creeds are equally valid and all beliefs are true what comes out is something close to this exhibit.

Every caricature is an image of a messed-up quest for meaning and enlightenment, an icon to the conclusions to every sojourn fueled by vibes and whatever else is needed to have something one can call faith. Divine depictions are a who's who of surface conceptions of deities and human portraits feature men not as visionaries but as spiritual interest stories.

Del Rosario's exhibit shows the ultimate consequence of the ideal secular world where as nothing is sacred everything becomes sacred: you get a divine free-for-all.

Chapter 7

Finally went to Mitsukoshi BGC, I don't think I've ever been to a mall with lower ceilings, but I'm surprised about the out in the open layout that most malls here don't take. I did get a new puzzle gashapon for my troubles, and with new branches popping up closer to home I'm sure excited.

Yesterday was a taxing trip looking at hundred and thousands of figurines at Greenhills, the place to go for shelf fillers. I wasn't alone in this; my cousin had planned to look for a certain Funko pop in those stores.

Little did we know how much effort this took.

While the central mall is seeing improvements nowadays, most of the shopping center is still that notorious mess of stores hidden in nooks and crannies you least expect. Some secret cavern deep inside the mall can only be unlocked by a password and inside is cellphone repair.

Two underestimations: The amount of stores selling fandom collectibles and how rare a Derrick Rose Funko with a poster inside the box is. In the course of this search we've found other things of interest and even a gashapon haven, but still none of what we're looking for.

A shame, really. A place with the same store density as Kowloon's residencies would probably have that kind of toy just out of sheer probability, but no such luck that time. I'm not too fond of figurines myself, then again I am not engrossed in any single fandom nor do I have the disposition.

Well, we didn't find it and ended up buying something else for all that effort. Can't wait to come back.

Not a lot to report for yesterday, money and time felt tight and I went carrying a bag full of origami kusudama models, gauging how much of a burden it would be to commute and how I might approach selling them if at all.

The opening hour means a long line extending down a stairwell, any longer and it will wind back up. While in line on the way to the ticket booth, someone from the Pocky booth approached us for a sample and a ticket promo, causing the group behind me to discuss the merits of taking the promo and scalping the ticket.

Inside I headed straight for the artist tables and had an opportunity to show my wares to one seller whose table is decorated with a few hanging charms. I asked about the paper and they also came from Daiso, albeit in a design not available here as of this writing. I hopped to another table to commission a character and an older lady (someone's mother from what I can remember) noticed me beforehand and asked me about my kusudama. She bought one for my only sale of that day, returning less from the commission I did get.

Later on I met up with a streamer friend, then had some lunch. Looking for a place to eat took a while as every place was full, not unusual for a con Sunday in Megamall. Mother was with me to shop and she had to settle for the supermarket eatery as she could not find any place that wasn't crowded.

I returned to said friend in the middle of a photoshoot, he's the one holding the camera. I sat there for a while as by then my legs were tiring out. I had a bit of a chat with someone, Michael, who was there to learn taking cosplay photos. He's a cook by trade and from wanting to take his own product photos for online selling he's expanding his craft to make photography an extra expertise.

One side of Mall A is under construction, blocking out a decent number of stores including about four galleries at the fourth floor. The only gallery still up was hosting a painter's history of paintings, though that space mostly hosts painting exhibits anyway.

Chapter 6

A quick rundown of this weekend. A combined celebration took place at an aunt's place in Cainta yesterday. Three birthdays combined with the gender reveal of my sister's second kid. I missed out on most of the fun as I had to cater to someone who due to reasons I cannot disclose cannot join the celebrations per se. We went to a nearby mall and I ordered some KFC for him.

The mall is pretty tiny compared to the average mall in Metro Manila, it had a Daiso, which is enough for me. Unsurprisingly most items in there are about the same as in every other branch, including origami papers, so I settled on a pair of scissors that I wanted to get.

I arrived at the place to have a bit of what's left of the party food then not really do anything until we went home at midnight.

Next day, which as of typing this ended a while ago, my mother and I went out for Mass at the Center for Padre Pio near Eastwood City. It was a sleepy ordeal to say the least. We didn't even bother spending a minute more in Araneta and headed straight for home in a minibus to sleep in.

A quiet part of Caloocan just got a bit louder. An SM mall just in front of the sports center means one thing, a new hangout to spend an entire afternoon. Opening day, nay, weekend was brutal, with people already piling up at the entrance, the mall had to open earlier.

My first visit was on its second night, a sudden rendezvous with the sister et al. Just the drive was proof; I could have walked there faster compared to the traffic jam, but the jammed up two-lane road is just the beginning.

When we arrived the place was as packed as it can get. 

The mall isn't big, three floors in an area smaller than a wing of the original SM Fairview. The layout is like the usual SM mall save for some spaces left from adding parking lots. This combined with proximity and the usual area resident's favorite pastime of hanging out in air-conditioned malls and you have yourself a crowded mall.

Every food place is packed and there's nary a corner where a number of people have gathered to take pictures. We only managed to buy fries and shakes (the kiosk had limited options and ingredients because there's just that many), and this was on the second day, at the closing couple of hours.

Maybe letting the opening hype fizzle out will make things better. Yes and no. This Tuesday my mom wanted to check the place out. We went there by lunchtime and it's not that populated. A few days later, namely just this Friday we returned just for the heck of it and slowly but surely people were everywhere again, not as crowded as the first days but close enough.

Having grown up going to malls larger and fancier, I'm certain I'll be going here often only because a trip is cheaper. That's reason enough for me.

Many assume that the entirety of Metro Manila is the same. But living in the part of the region that isn't either an urban metropolis or a poverty documentary hotspot, the sorts of places you get in a lifestyle magazine are a ways (and means) from me. Funny then that I start like this when I'm just going to do a quick update on a dental visit.

Manila is a city that's grown on itself as time passes, and it shows with its old buildings still standing aloft the new ones being made next to them. Residents live amongst pieces of history as they carve their own in this place that has been messy even before Legazpi staked his claim.

Last January 20, my family paid a visit to a dentist who's more or less family (they're second cousins). The car trip involves a transition from the loud and modern bustle of Quezon City to the aged streets of Manila, stuck in time yet it moves along. 

We arrived at the office over at Lacson Avenue, which is just a walk from my university. The place itself looks like a living room that someone rearranged into a dental clinic. The front lobby is about 2 feet by 5 feet large with a TV next to a fridge. Separated by glass is the clinic proper, inside is a desk and two chairs, one awfully close to the door. There is air conditioning but it's hard to notice. I had some time to kill before my turn so I did a bit of a stroll to the old road where I'd get a bit to eat in my college days, Dapitan Street. Some of the old buildings still stand, but there were new faces made and old faces being torn down, the area around the university still prone to change as ever.

I had no time to enter the university proper but the differences in the street I regularly walked for years from a decade ago and now are noticeable.

As for my teeth, I had a cleaning and a rather deep filling, there will be a return visit, maybe I'll actually jot down something for another piece; our attempt at trying out a famous eatery ended on a closed shop.

Chapter 5

Been a while since I posted here, so let me do a quick recap of another traipse.

No thanks to rerouting did a once simple trip to Eton Centris require me to take a train one station away, not counting the extra walking. The events place Elements isn't even close to the station, giving you an opportunity to look at how sparse the area actually is. You see, Eton Centris feels more like a company town or a stopover than a shopping center: Mostly outdoors, 24/7 open eateries, call centers, its location at a busy intersection nowhere near a residence compensated by a railway station. There are still shoppers to merit shops selling non-perishables, but most of  the patron you'll see there are taking a break from work.

Right, onto the event proper. Elements as a venue is a large version of a wedding reception or debut venue. It's large enough for a proper con but isn't really suited for it. This is my second excursion to this place, the first one also an art marketplace prompted by an artist's post on their social. Surprisingly I came in early enough to get in for free, so the next step is to look for the only reason I even bothered: a streamer I watch. My only hints are her username and art style, not enough information in a place where there are over a hundred other artists showing off their wares.

There's a lot of people, a lot of tables, I'd list the sorts of people that are in there but if I did I'd be put on a different list. To say I understand nothing about the fandoms and the witty quips on the typography would be an understatement, but then again this is how it usually goes for me. I have grown tired of the sassy statement merchandise to be honest, but a generation speaks this way and I worry.

Soon enough I find who I'm looking for, to be nice about this without disclosing any information: the usual discrepancy between an online persona and its owner is more striking if the former is in the form of a drawing. It's always a great surprise to introduce yourself as this and that, but you can only pull that off once. I bought a couple of commissions and a sticker, being the broke guy that I am, and went back on train to Trinoma once I'm done and had a late lunch.

The mess of construction in that area meant that the bridge between Trinoma and SM North Edsa has been cut off, now people have to cross the busy North Avenue, one of the many factors creating traffic in the already traffic-prone North Ave-EDSA junction. Road traffic is one thing, but both malls are also congested this weekend.

Now let me end with some observations coming from me who's fully aware I won't be there to sell my work: Every alley I've visited has always been the same: a bunch of small artists trying to get by selling not only their creations but their sentiments, it's a real gallery of both freaks and art, but ironically they all seem to be the same; the same messages ring in every other sticker, everyone seems to have the same disposition to life. At that point it's probably the nature of these things to attract such people (maybe also something about the artist psyche), but I do think, and I know what I'm saying, putting a bunch of relative weirdos in a room doesn't really result in a variety of people.

Chapter 4

Chapter 3